Mauresmo

WIMBLEDON, England -- No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo, No. 2 Kim Clijsters, No. 3 Justine Henin-Hardenne and No. 4 Maria Sharapova. They couldn't have gotten the seedings more perfect for this Wimbledon. The top four women in tennis dispatched the final pretenders for the crown yesterday and roared into the semifinals. Every one of them raised their games to notch their fifth wins of this fortnight and, when they reconvene here tomorrow to find out who goes to the final, all will be working with critical momentum.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Trapped by the incessant rains and its own intransigence, Wimbledon stumbled on yesterday with one of its worst-organized two weeks in recent years. It took four days for Andy Roddick, the lone American man remaining in the singles tournament, to get back on court, only to be rained off again when he was within a service hold of taking a two-set lead in his fourth-round match against Paul-Henri Mathieu. It has been even more aggravating for No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal, who began playing Robin Soderling on Saturday.

WIMBLEDON, England -- When Amelie Mauresmo first got noticed at the 1999 Australian Open, it was for two things: for reaching the finals as an unseeded 19-year-old and for the way she handled unseemly comments from Martina Hingis about being "half a man." Mauresmo lost that final to Hingis but won respect for the way she both acknowledged her relationship with another woman and said she was proud of her broad, athletic shoulders and attacking style of tennis. And based on her play, Mauresmo was expected to win a major tournament soon.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Amelie Mauresmo was supposed to crumble now. Serving for the match yesterday, for Wimbledon, on Centre Court, with a nerve that has failed her before, Mauresmo whacked a nastily placed ace, 97 mph, underneath Justine Henin-Hardenne's racket. It would take Mauresmo five more points - another ace, a couple of wobbly ground strokes and finally a 73-mph second serve that could have been crushed but wasn't. Instead it was Henin-Hardenne whose strokes and mind and will failed.

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND -- Yesterday's first Wimbledon women's semifinal was neatly played on a plain canvas and with all the emotions buried safely under the white dresses and polite smiles. Third-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne, wearing her traditional skirt and shirt and just a watch as jewelry, won a tidy 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over her Belgian compatriot, second-seeded Kim Clijsters, who wore an unadorned white dress. Henin-Hardenne is now one win away from holding at least one of each of the four major tennis championships.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Amelie Mauresmo was supposed to crumble now. Serving for the match yesterday, for Wimbledon, on Centre Court, with a nerve that has failed her before, Mauresmo whacked a nastily placed ace, 97 mph, underneath Justine Henin-Hardenne's racket. It would take Mauresmo five more points - another ace, a couple of wobbly ground strokes and finally a 73-mph second serve that could have been crushed but wasn't. Instead it was Henin-Hardenne whose strokes and mind and will failed.

WIMBLEDON, England - Wet weather and a hot player drove Jennifer Capriati right out of Wimbledon yesterday. The No. 3 seed looked as if she wanted to be anywhere but where she was, on Centre Court, in the women's quarterfinals against No. 9 Amelie Mauresmo of France. Capriati glumly stared at a mass of clouds bearing down on Centre Court. She briskly marched on and off the court during repeated bouts of sprinkling rain. She feuded a little with the chair umpire over service calls. She mouthed a curse.

NEW YORK - Jennifer Capriati wanted her quarterfinal match so much, she lost it. The No. 3 seed, one of a handful of players viewed as possible challengers to Serena and Venus Williams' domination of women's tennis, felt the weight of desire, the expectations of past success and the pressure of opportunity bearing down on her - all at once. When she had the chance to serve out the second set and claim the match against Amelie Mauresmo at Arthur Ashe Stadium yesterday afternoon, Capriati tightened up and wound up losing, 4-6, 7-6 (5)

WIMBLEDON, England -- Trapped by the incessant rains and its own intransigence, Wimbledon stumbled on yesterday with one of its worst-organized two weeks in recent years. It took four days for Andy Roddick, the lone American man remaining in the singles tournament, to get back on court, only to be rained off again when he was within a service hold of taking a two-set lead in his fourth-round match against Paul-Henri Mathieu. It has been even more aggravating for No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal, who began playing Robin Soderling on Saturday.

NEW YORK - Jennifer Capriati wanted her quarterfinal match so much, she lost it. The No. 3 seed, one of a handful of players who are viewed as possible challengers to the Serena and Venus Williams domination of women's tennis, felt the weight of desire, the expectations of past success and the pressure of opportunity bearing down on her - all at once. When she had the chance to serve out the second set and claim the match against Amelie Mauresmo in Arthur Ashe Stadium yesterday afternoon, Capriati tightened up and wound up losing, 4-6, 7-6 (5)

WIMBLEDON, England -- When Amelie Mauresmo first got noticed at the 1999 Australian Open, it was for two things: for reaching the finals as an unseeded 19-year-old and for the way she handled unseemly comments from Martina Hingis about being "half a man." Mauresmo lost that final to Hingis but won respect for the way she both acknowledged her relationship with another woman and said she was proud of her broad, athletic shoulders and attacking style of tennis. And based on her play, Mauresmo was expected to win a major tournament soon.

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND -- Yesterday's first Wimbledon women's semifinal was neatly played on a plain canvas and with all the emotions buried safely under the white dresses and polite smiles. Third-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne, wearing her traditional skirt and shirt and just a watch as jewelry, won a tidy 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over her Belgian compatriot, second-seeded Kim Clijsters, who wore an unadorned white dress. Henin-Hardenne is now one win away from holding at least one of each of the four major tennis championships.

WIMBLEDON, England -- No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo, No. 2 Kim Clijsters, No. 3 Justine Henin-Hardenne and No. 4 Maria Sharapova. They couldn't have gotten the seedings more perfect for this Wimbledon. The top four women in tennis dispatched the final pretenders for the crown yesterday and roared into the semifinals. Every one of them raised their games to notch their fifth wins of this fortnight and, when they reconvene here tomorrow to find out who goes to the final, all will be working with critical momentum.

Elena Dementieva refused to take credit for Russia's Fed Cup victory over France. Perhaps she should. The Russians won the title for the second straight year yesterday. Dementieva won both her singles matches in the best-of-five final and teamed with Dinara Safina to capture the deciding doubles for a 3-2 victory. The Russian duo beat Mary Pierce and Amelie Mauresmo, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. "It's not Dementieva's victory," Dementieva said. "We win as a team and lose as a team." In the day's singles matches, Pierce rallied past Anastasia Myskina, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, to even the series at 2-2. Dementieva defeated Mauresmo in the opener, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. "She carried the team this weekend," Mauresmo said.

WIMBLEDON, England -- They are career-turnaround specialists, often getting ahead at the expense of the other for the past eight-plus years, meeting 26 times around the world. Venus Williams needed to beat Lindsay Davenport in the final to win her first and second major championships, at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2000. Williams represented a significant obstacle for Davenport in the semifinals of the U.S. Open in 1998, en route to Davenport's first major title. More recently, Davenport pulled herself from the brink of retirement last summer.

WIMBLEDON, England - When the last shriek had assaulted the ears of the 10,000 customers on Court No. 1 and the last thud off Venus Williams' resurgent racket had bounced off the overhang on Centre Court, Wimbledon couldn't have been left yesterday with a more intriguing women's final four: Defending champion Maria Sharapova, whose serve has been broken only once in 44 games and whose streak of unbroken service games now stands at 27. World No. 1...

NEW YORK - Defending U.S. Open champion Venus Williams looks so serene as she contemplates her semifinal match against No. 10 seed Amelie Mauresmo. She sits straight in her chair before the crowd of interrogators who want to know what she sees in Mauresmo's game that might allow her to join the elite players just below the Williams sisters. The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, are the best the women's game has to offer here at the U.S. Open and that, nearly every player has said, is a level better than anyone else.

Elena Dementieva refused to take credit for Russia's Fed Cup victory over France. Perhaps she should. The Russians won the title for the second straight year yesterday. Dementieva won both her singles matches in the best-of-five final and teamed with Dinara Safina to capture the deciding doubles for a 3-2 victory. The Russian duo beat Mary Pierce and Amelie Mauresmo, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. "It's not Dementieva's victory," Dementieva said. "We win as a team and lose as a team." In the day's singles matches, Pierce rallied past Anastasia Myskina, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, to even the series at 2-2. Dementieva defeated Mauresmo in the opener, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. "She carried the team this weekend," Mauresmo said.

PARIS - As the fourth and final set reached the crisis point and Marat Safin's brilliance began to desert him, it seemed like only a matter of time until he produced one of his famous explosions. But for the third match in a row at this French Open, there were no smashed rackets or livid tirades. This time, Safin grasped the butt of the handle with one hand, the top of the frame with the other and feigned splintering it over his cocked knee. He then went about the business of shutting down 2003 champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, 7-6 (5)

WIMBLEDON, England - The emotions shifted so abruptly, so suddenly yesterday on Centre Court. "Ahhh, yes!" Serena Williams would cry during her 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4 victory over Amelie Mauresmo in the Wimbledon semifinals. It would come after a particularly ferocious forehand had brought chalk off the line or when a serve would leave Mauresmo fastened helplessly to the ground. "Allez!" Mauresmo would shout after a crafty forehand volley or a whip-like, one-handed backhand cut through the swirling wind and left Williams wrong-footed.